Understanding The Rise Of Right Wing Populism

Abstract

The United States, like many countries in the West today, is experiencing a wave of populism. While the populist left in the United States has certainly attracted thousands through the candidacy of Bernie Sanders, the populist right, or more accurately the influence of the populist right, has grown amazingly to the point where two-thirds of self-identified Republicans want Donald Trump to retain political power. More astonishingly, forty four percent of self-identified Republicans want Trump (who will be around seventy-eight) to run for president in 2024. Right-wing populism has been dominating the American political discussion since at least 2016, though the precursors to this movement go back further. This paper will discuss the underlying causes of the recent surge in right wing populism and the intentional strategies that right wing political actors use to both gain and retain support for the populist right in the United States. The rise of right wing populism cannot be attributed to a single person, movement, or event but rather a series of (1) a number of underlying economic plights caused by policies which favor the desires of the billionaire class and corporations (to pursue maximum profit) over working class and middle class people, (2) the economic and political manipulation at the hands of bourgeois political actors (such as the Koch family), and (3) a series of intentional political strategies used by right wing political actors to inspire outrage, garner support, and manipulate the political narrative with a particular interest in undermining traditional sources of authority and promoting nativist rhetoric. Mainly, many people in the United States are unable to live basic lives because of a constraining economic system and legislation which favor imminent and permanent indebtment, disinvestment from public goods, tremendous income inequality through financialization and wage theft, and corporate interests. This inability to live comfortably has caused disillusionment with the government for most Americans and is particularly salient with white men who are feeling the heat of unfettered capitalism in ways that contradict their view of the American exceptionalist framework. This disillusionment coupled with the infiltration of right wing views in the political and cultural views by presenting new sources of legitimate discourse and authority is capitalized on by right wing political actors through scare tactics and nativist/white nationalist rhetoric in order to achieve the political, cultural, and economic power to drive their movement.